Cons: Uses an older bullet design and does not use a low flash propellent.

The .45 ACP round is one of the many brainchilds of firearms genius John M. Browning. Browning developed this round to go with his then-new 1911 Model Automatic Pistol for a U.S. army contract near the start of the 20th Century.

Now, almost 100 years later, both the 1911 pistol design and it's .45 ACP round still have a strong following in the U.S.

The Winchester USA .45 ACP 230 gr JHP round is one of the loads in Winchester's "White Box" line of value priced ammunition. This ammo is designed to offer shooters good, reliable target ammo at an ecomomical price point.

The "Winchester White Box" line uses U.S. standard Boxer primers and reloadable brass cases. This allows the empty cases to be reused by the home reloader. This recyling makes this ammo even more economical as the cases can be reused numerous times.

This particular version of the .45 ACP load uses a Jacketed Hollow Point (JHP) bullet instead of the FMJ bullet more commonly used for target ammo.

While JHP's are most commonly used for self defense purposes, I do not recommend the Winchester White Box .45 ACP JHP load for that purpose. While a JHP bullet is much more effective then a FMJ bullet for self defense, the bullet used in the "White Box" is an older design. Projectile design has improved since this bullet was created and the newer designs incorporate projectiles that will expand more reliably under a wide range of conditions then this older bullet design.

The othe reason I would not recommend this load for self-defense purposes is that, like all Winchester White Box ammunition, it uses a less exensive bulk propellent instead of the more expensive speciality propellents used in modern premium defensive ammunition. While this old propellent is still reliable, it does not incorporate the flash retardant chemicals used in the more modern and more expensive propellents loaded into premium personal defense ammunition.

In practice, this means that this load will produce a brighter and larger muzzle flash then a load using a more modern, and expensive, propellent. Since most defensive shootings occur in low light situations you want the least muzzle flash possible to keep from temporarily blinding yourself.

For general target use, this load would work fine. Since it does have the JHP bullet it tends to be priced a little higher then Winchester's similiar load that uses a FMJ bullet. That means that the FMJ load would typically be my first choice for target shooting instead of this load.

Still, it is a reliable load that is accurate enough for general target shooting and, in a pinch and if nothing better was available, would work for self defense purposes.